The way I presented the bill to a lot of Congress people, I turned a couple of heads on it. Some of them didn’t know that everything else in radio is paid. Whether you talk, you walk, whatever you do, it’s paid -- except for the performers on disc.

Opponents claim Conyers’ bill would impose a “performance tax” on local radio stations. They accuse performance artists and record labels of being greedy ingrates:

In recent years, the record labels have seen sales of albums decline as more listeners opt for digital downloads. However, radio remains the number one promotional vehicle for music – it’s not responsible for the label’s resistance to the digital age, and it shouldn’t be on the hook to fix it. Radio already provides between $1.5 to $2.4 billion dollars annually in music sales for artists and record labels. By pushing a tax on local radio, record labels are biting the hand that feeds them.

Not so, says Fakir:

There has been misinformation, particularly in Detroit, coming from (Radio One CEO) Cathy Hughes, that this is some sort of tax. It’s not a tax, it’s something that’s long overdue.